1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a treatment solution supply method of supplying a treatment solution onto a substrate, a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, and a treatment solution supply apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a photolithography step in a manufacturing process of a semiconductor device, for example, coating treatment of applying a predetermined treatment solution, for example, onto a semiconductor wafer (hereinafter, referred to as a “wafer”) as a substrate to form a coating film such as an anti-reflection film, a resist film or the like, exposure processing of exposing the resist film into a predetermined pattern, developing treatment of developing the exposed resist film, and so on are sequentially performed to form a predetermined resist pattern on the wafer.
In the above-described coating treatment, fine foreign substances (particles) may be contained in the treatment solution. Further, also when particles adhere to the inside of the path such as pumps, valves and pipes of an apparatus that supplies the treatment solution, the particles may be similarly mixed into the treatment solution. Therefore, a filter is disposed in the path of the apparatus that supplies the treatment solution, and the filter removes the particles (Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. H7-326570).
Incidentally, bubbles (gas) may be contained in the treatment solution. More specifically, when the treatment solution passes through the filter, the filter becomes a resistance to decrease the pressure of the treatment solution. Thus, bubbles occur in the treatment solution and the bubbles break free into the filter. As a result, the bubbles are mixed into the filter, so that the effective area of the filter becomes smaller to decrease the performance of the filter. Hence, it is also disclosed in the afore mentioned Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. H7-326570 that the bubbles accumulated in the filter are discharged by a gas ventilation pipe to the outside of the filter.